Saturday, December 11, 1999

By DONNA KNIPP
Herald & News

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS - Light rain fell from gray skies on Friday as the Department of Public Works hauled off the last of the wreckage from of a light aircraft that came to a fiery end on Washington Avenue.

Up and down the street and in nearby shops, residents spoke about how, the night before, the improbable had become reality: when an intruder in the form of a careening airplane had fallen from the sky into the midst of their quiet neighborhood. The terror-filled moment and its aftermath took the lives of four aboard the Beechcraft Baron.

The Bergen County Sheriff's officers still had the crash site cordoned off by late afternoon on Friday. Neighbors who said they had viewed the spot where the craft fell reported melted siding on one house, a singed garage and a storage shed that was leveled by flames.

"A lot has happened to this street lately," said Eric Baulch, a resident of Washington Place. "During Tropical Storm Floyd, my garage was hit by lightening, then we had a big windstorm about a week and a half ago, and a tree fell on a house across the street. Now this."

Miraculously, many say, no one in the neighborhood was hurt by the crash.

Lori Krivak, a nurse who lives at 43 Washington Place along with her husband and two children, said, "Unfortunately, those people died. But somebody was looking out for this neighborhood."

Lorenzo Nese and his wife were trying to move into their new home at 53 Washington Place when the plane went down; his wife was in the house, and he was at their old home on Franklin Avenue, loading furniture into a moving truck.

"We wanted a quiet street," Nese said, shaking his head. "And then this."

Nese noted that the crash caused two explosions: a small one, then an enormous one. "She heard the small one first, and she thought it was a transformer blowing up, because we've heard that sound before. Then the second explosion happened. That made her think it was maybe a chain reaction of some kind.

"There were two guys out here from Bell Atlantic putting in our phones. When they heard that, they told her to get the hell out. She left, and they left."

Others said the latter and larger explosion caused a "mushroom" of smoke that rose above the tall pines that line the block.

Praise among neighbors for the official response to the accident was strong.

"The emergency people were here before the second explosion happened," Krivak said. There were vehicles of all sorts in the area. "When I came out of the house," Baulch said, "I felt like Custer at his last stand - there were four or five helicopters circling overhead, around and around. They were out there at least until 1 in the morning."

At the Mi Lady Beauty Shop on Terrace Ave a few blocks away, Tina Tsamas, the owner, said the crash has people worrying, now more than ever about safety at Teterboro Airport. "They worry about the noise," she said, "and they say the airport is too close to the houses. The politicians are complaining, the people are complaining, that it's bad."

A customer at her shop, Liz Poulos, of East Rutherford, said themedia spotlight focused on Hasbrouck Heights in since Thursday is unfortunate. "We don't like to be in the spotlight for such a terrible thing," she said.

"It's very sad that this happened at the holiday time," she said. "The people in the plane were coming here for Christmas."

Others say that worries about the airport and its proxity to borough are not likely to let up soon.

"Something like this doesn't happen often," said Jeff Leidenfrost, an 18-year resident.